User Guide

97
mum supportable troops”, which, if exceeded,
causes their maintenance cost to be consider-
ably higher than would normally be the case.
This acts as a mechanism to prevent a country
from being able to field an unreasonably large
army for any length of time -- something that
was very much the case during this historical
era.
When your country is at peace, it is usually
safe to reduce your maintenance level to a de-
gree to help keep the cost of supporting them
from consuming too much of your income. If
you are experiencing rebellion, or if you antici-
pate a declaration of war from an enemy, you
would be well advised to return your payments
to the full maintenance value so your troops’
morale will be high enough that they will be
willing to fight.
As a rule of thumb, you should never exceed
the maximum supportable troop levels unless
you are urgently in need of the additional forc-
es and have a large enough income and treas-
ury to support them. You might recruit a few
extra regiments or hire some mercenaries to
carry you through a particularly difficult war
against a more powerful enemy, but you should
disband any excess forces as soon as it is safe to
do so. Otherwise, you will find yourself pay-
ing a very large percentage of your monthly in-
come to simply maintain your military, which
will leave very little for the crucial investments
in technology that will keep you on a par with
your neighbours.
Attrition
Every province has a limit to the total number
of soldiers that it is able to feed and supply at
any one time. If more men are stationed in that
province at any one time than it is able to sup-
port, some percentage of the force will be lost
as a result of attrition. This reflects the real-life
issues of desertion and disease that historically
plagued large armies when they took to the
field.
At the beginning of each month, the game
checks each army to see if its location is able to
support the total number of soldiers stationed
there. This total includes not only your own
forces, but also the soldiers belonging to any
other country that has an army in that prov-
ince as well. This could be an enemy army that
you are currently fighting, or possible an ally’s
army that also happens to be there. If the total
number of soldiers exceeds the province’s sup-
port capabilities, a percentage of your soldiers
will be lost.
As we saw above, the army information box
will indicate whether you are suffering any
attrition and the percentage of the army that
you will lose as a result of a shortage of sup-
ply. You can also click on a province and look
at the summary information to see how many
of your men it can support, and the maximum
attrition rate you will suffer if you exceed this.
Provinces that belong to your country will
usually be able to support many of your men,
and the attrition rate for exceeding this will be
quite low. The values will be somewhat worse
for a province that belongs to an ally and are
usually quite bad for provinces that belong to
an enemy.
Many provinces will experience seasonal
“winter conditions” that will be mild, moderate
or severe and can last for several months. You
are far more likely to encounter severe winter
conditions in extreme latitudes (northern Rus-
sia), or in somewhat more temperate provinces
that have very high elevations (the Alps). This
is the only form of weather-related condition
that is considered in Europa Universalis III, as
the scale of a grand strategy game does not lend
itself well to shorter, periodic weather patterns.
When you are in your own provinces or in a
province belonging to a country that is grant-
ing you military access, it is assumed that the
necessary supplies are still available; when you
are in hostile or un-owned provinces, you will
experience a much higher rate of attrition dur-
ing winter conditions. Attrition is the only ef-
fect of the seasonal winter effect. There are no
additional penalties applied to movement or
combat.